Elastic-fluid engine.



.R. F. HALLIWE-LL.

- ELASTIC FLUID ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED my, 15, 191.1.

Patentgd June 11, 1918.

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: WE D- REGINALD r. HALLIWELL, or RUGBY, ENGLAND, 'AssIeNoR To GENERAL ELEofrn'Ic COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ELASTIC-FLUID ENGINE.

' To all wkomit may concern:

' Be it known that I, REGINALD F. HAL I- WELL, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Rugby, Warwickshire, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elastic-Fluid Engines, of

"which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to elasticfluid engines of the low pressure or mixed more high pres pressure type, such as are particularly intended to be fed with elastic fluid from an valve mechanisn'r will function as a combined emergency, shut-off, controlling, and low pressure stop valve.

-For a consideration of what I believe to be novel and my invention, attention is directed to the accompanying specification and the claim appended thereto.

- In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing my im proved valve mechanism applied to an elas tic-fluid turbine; Fig. 2 1s a vertical sectional view through the valve mechanism of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a'view similar to Fig.

2 of a modification. In Figs. 2 and 3 the. valve operating mechanism of the turbine is shown as turned through an angle of 90 from what it is in Fig. 1 in order to better illustrate the structure.

Referring to the drawing, 5 indicates generally an engine adapted to be driven in whole or in part by low pressure elastic fluid. In the present instance a mixed pressure elastic-fluid turbine is shown having a valve chest 6 to which high pressure elastic fluid may be admitted by the pipe 7. In the valve chest is, a suitable valve mechan-ism,a portion of which is housed by the casing 8. This valve mechanism may be of any suitable type adapted to be operated by 'the rotation of a shaft 9 to' admit elastic fluid from thechest to the turbine. 10 indicates a fluid-actuated 'motor,.to the piston ofwhich' is connected a rod 10 having'a rack 10" at its upper end. The rack 10"v meshes with a suitable gear segment (not shown) on shaft 9 through which the shaft is turned. 11 indicates a speed governor Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed Februarv'l 5, 1917, Serial 1%. 148.858.

Patented June 11, 1918.

which is connected to the pilot valve of the motor 10 by governor lever 11 and rod 11'.

This is a usual and well known arrangement of governor, fluid-actuated motor, and valve gear.

Referring now particularly to Fig. 2 wherein my improved valve mechanism for controlling the flow of low pressure elastic fluid to the engine is shown, l3 indicates an ordinary equilibrium valve receiving elastic fluid from a suitable accumulator 14,;or other source, through a'conduit 15, and ale lowing it to pass tov the turbine through conduit 16. The spindle 17 of this valve is provided with a cross-head 18 to which a rocking lever 19 ispivotally connected. The lever 19 is provided with a movable fulcrum at each end, the fulcrum 20 on the; left-hand end being mounted on a screwed rod 21; which can be rotated by means of ahand,

wheel 22 to raise or lower the fulcrum" so that the valve may be utilized as. a manu-' I ally operated stop valve. The screwedrod 21is journaled in a sliding abutment 23:

' which is acted upon by a spring 24: tendi-ng to force it downward. In the present in:

stance the rod 21 has a head 21, which engages the upper-surface of abutment 23.

The abutment 23 is engaged and held against action of the spring 24 by means of a trigger 25 which engages a notch in the abutment 23.. Connected with the triggeris 1 alever 26 by which it may be moved.- This,

lever may be operated manually or otherwise, asfound desirable. When the lever 26 i operated, the trigger 25 is moved out of-the notch in abutment 23 and the spring 24 forces the screw rod 21 downward and with it the fulcrum 18, thereby causing the valve 13 to close. -Inthis case the valve acts as an emergency valve.

The other fulcrum 27 of lever 19 is cohnected to a' stem 28 carried by iston 29n working in a cylinder 30. The cy inder 30.

below the piston 29 is in communication:

through an aperture 31 with the steam pres-e:-

sure, at the steam inlet'15. The upper side of the piston 29 is in communication withthe atmosphere and subjected to atmospheric I pressure. justed to regulate t 31 is a weight which may be-adevpressure at which the piston 29 operates.

that on the under side the fulcrum' 18 will en the effective pressureon the upper side of the piston exceeds."

to close. This forms a well known type of pressure regulated automatic shut-01f valve.

Mounted in alinenient with the valve spindle 17 is a cylinder 32 provided with a piston 33 having a 'stem 3% 'pro ectmg through its lower end adapted, when the piston 33 is forced downward, to engage the upper side of the cross-head 18. The movement of the piston 33 is controlled by means of a pilot valve 35 which controls the admission of motive fluid to the cylinder 32 in a well known manner. The pilot valve 35 has its stem'36 connected at an, intermediate point to a floating lever 37 One end of, lever 37 is connected to the upper end of the stem 34 of piston 33, while the other end is connected by means of a link 38 to one arm of a bell crank lever 39. The other arm of the bell crank lever 39 carries a roller 40 engaging a cam/11 mounted on the cam shaft 9 which, as already stated, operates the high pressure valve mechanism of the turbine.

. When the turbine is in operation, the pressure of the elastic fluid on the under side of piston 29 tends to open and hold open the valve 13. The amount which the valve can open, however, is limited by the stem 34. which is positioned by the piston 33, which in turn is controlled by the cam 41 on shaft 9. When there is an ample supply of low pressure elastic fluid so that its pressure is kept up, then theupper side of cross-head 18 will be against the stem 34:. This in sub stance places the valve 13 directly under the control of the speed governor 11. Assume, for example, that the turbine is operating entirely on low pressure elastic fluid entering through valve 13: then shaft 9 will be in'such a position that the high pressure valve mechanism is closed. The valve 13 may occupy some intermediate 'position with the upper face of cross-head 18 forced against the stem 34 by the pressure of the low pressure elastic fluid acting on piston 29. If now the turbine should speed up, then the governor 11 will actuate the fluid motor 10 crease, then the same cept in the opposite causing it to turn the shaft 9 in an anticlockwise direction, Fig. 2. This turns the cam 41, thus shifting the position of the bell crank lever 39, causing it to raise the pilot valve 35 to admit'actuating fluid above the piston 33. The piston 33 is thus forced downward closing ofl more or less the valve 13 so as to admit less elastic fluid to the turbine to bring the speed backto normal. On the other hand,

direction, the stem 34 moving upward so as-to permit the pressure under piston 29 to' open farther valve 13, thus admitting more elastic fluid to the turbine to take care of the increased load. In

fact, the valve 13 will follow the movements of the stem 34:. Should the load on the tur bine continue to Increase, eventually the should the speed de-' action takes place, ex-

valve 13 will be wide open. By this time the active portion of cam 41 has passed from under roller 40. Further turning of the shaft 9 due to increase in the load does not affect low pressure valve 13 further but acts to operate the high pressure valve mechanism in chest 6 to admit high pressure ela's tic fluid to supplement the low pressure supply, the arrangement being such that the high pressure valve mechanism is opened after the lowpressure valve mechanism is v tain the pressure in the accumulator or pipe line above atmospheric. One reason for this isto prevent air from leakinginto the accufully opened. In case of a diminutionin' mulator or pipe line from which it may find its way to the condenser, thus impairing the vacuum. My low pressure valve mechanism takes care of this, for when the pressure of the low pressure elastic fluid falls below the desired value, then the piston 29 will be forced downward by atmospheric pressure closing ofl to a greater or less extent the valve 13. At such a time the cross-head 18 "and stem 34 separate, and, as will be clear,

the speed governor 11 will automatically operate the high pressure valve mechanism to admit high pressure elastic fluidto take care of the load. Should the supply of low pressure elastic fluid fail altogether, then, of course, the valve 13 automatically closes due to the air pressure on piston 29.

, Ordinarily the fulcrum 20 of lever 19 is stationary. By turning hand wheel 22 valve 13 can be opened or closed manually and fulcrum 20 can be adjusted to any desired intermediate position. The valve 13 may be quickly and automatically closed by the operation of lever 26 to move the'trigger 25 and release abutment 23. This permits the spring 24 to quickly close the valve 13. As is obvious, the lever 26 may be moved manually or by ment. a v It will thus be seen that the single valve 13 is regulated to perform all the functions necessary and desirable for regulating the gow of low pressure elastic fluid to the turme. Referringnow to the modification shown 111 the valve cross-head 18, is connected at 45 with one end of the lever 19, and the atmospheric cylinder 30 has its piston stem 28cma'ny suitable automatic arrange Fig. 3, the piston spindle'34 of piston 33, insteadof being arranged in alinement with piston 29 being subject to atmospheric pressure. With this arrangement the work of.

moving the main valve 13 is not performed by the atmospheric cylinder 30 and piston 29 directly, as in Figs. 1 and 2, but through I the-,pilot valve '35 and piston 33. The arran ement of levers and the length of the s'tro e of piston 29 is such that if the elastic fluid pressure at the inlet is less thanthe desired pressure, the bell crank lever 39 is 'u n'able to move pilot valve 35 'sufiiciently to open valve 13. When the pressure of the steam inlet is high enough, the piston 29 is forced downward and the main valve 13 can be opened by the fluid-actuated piston 33 if i 1 the cam gear 41is in a position for doing so.

The modification of Fig. 3 involves simply a difi'erent arrangement of the elements of Fig. 2, and the operation will be readily apparent from the description already given.

In connection with Fig. 3', it will be noted that when the fulcrum 20 is in its lowest position, the valve 13 is shutand the operating' piston*33' is" at the top of its stroke.

With the fulcrum in this position, therefore, the regulating means cannot open the valve 13. On th other hand, if the fulcrum 20 is in its highest position,thenwith piston 33 at the top of its stroke,'the valve 13 will be wide open and it will only be closed when the piston 33 is at the bottom of its stroke. In other words,.it requires a completemovement of the piston 33 from the bottom of its stroke to the top of its stroke to fully 0 en valve 13. Variations in the position of t e fulcrum 20 between these two extremes will produce variations in the action of the regulating means on the valve, the position of the fulcrum determining the amount which the valve can open. For example,

with the fulcrum about midway between the two extremes, as shown in Fig. 3, it will be seen {that the valve 13 is closed when piston 33 is in about the middle position. With this adjustment of the fulcrum 20 the valve 13 can accordingly be opened only half way. It will thus be seen-that the action of the regulating means on the valve 13' depends on the position to which fulcrum 20 1s ad3usted. This is likewise true of the arrangement shown in Fig. 2, as is obvious, since it re quires a full movement of piston 29 from its lowermost to its uppermost position in order to fully openthe valve 13. In Fig. 2 the partsare-shown in about middle position. v

In accordance with the PI'OVlSlODS'Of the justable patent statutes, I have described the principle of operation of my invention, together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof; but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative, and that 'the invention can be carried out by other means,

What Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States,is,-

1. The combination with an engine adapt ed to be operated by low pressure elastic fluid, of a valve mechanismfor controlling the flow of such elastic fluid, and regulating I means for the valve mechanism comprising means responsive to the speed of the engine, and means respdnsive to the pressureof the low pressure elastic fluid, and -'a manually operable device for moving the valve mechanism independently of said regulating means, whereby the effective action of the regulating means on the valve mechanism.

may be varied.

2. The combination with an engine adapted to be operated by low pressure elastic fluid, of a valve mechanism for controlling the flow of such elastic fluid, and regulating means for the valve mechanism comprising means-responsive to the speed of the engine, and means responsive to the pressure of the low pressure elastic fluid, a manually operable device for'moving the valve mechanism independently of said regulating means, whereby the efl'ective action of the regulating means on the valve mechanism may bevaried, an abutment connected to the valve mechanism, meansacting on the abutment tending to move it in a direction to close the valve mechanism,'a trigger for holding the abutment, and meansfor releasing the trigger.

3. The combination with an engine adapted to be operated b low' pressure elastic fluid, ofa .valve'mec anism for controlling the flow of such elastic fluid, and regulating means for the valve mechanism comprising a lever connected therewith, means respon sive to the load on the en no, and means responsive to the 1pressure o the elastic fluid I and owering the leven, an ad lcrum for the lever, and manually operated mechanism for varyingthe for raisin position of the fulcrum toregulate thevalve mechanism. 4. The-combination with an engine adapted to be operated b low pressure elastic fluid, of a valve mec anism for-controlling the flow of such elastic fluid, and regulating means for the valve mechanism comprism a lever connected thereto, a normally fixe fulcrum for the lever, means responsive to the load on the en e and means responsive to-the ressure 0 ing an the elastic fluid for raislowering the lever, means formov-y: ing the lever on its fulcrum, manuall "op-} erated means for adjusting the normally fixed fulcrum, and means for releasing the fulcrum to permit the valve mechanism to quickly close.

5. In comblnati'on, an elastic-fluid engine having a valve mechanism for admitting low pressure elastic fluid thereto, and a valve mechanism for admitting high pres-- sure elastic fluid to supplement the low pres-- sure supply, means responsive to the/load on the engine for iegulating said valve mechanisms, means for regulating the low pressure valve mechanism in accordance with the pressure of the low pressure elastic fluid, manually. operable means tor positioning the low pressure valve mechanism, said means being operable to adjust the valve mechanism indepei'idently of both the load responsive regulating means and the pressure responsive regulating means, and means adapted to be released to permit the low pressure valve mechanism to quickly close I independently of the other regulating means.

In combination, an elastic-fluid engine, an accumulator for supplying low pressure elastic fluid thereto, a valve mechanism for admitting high pressure elastic fluid to the engine, a valve mechanism for controlling-- the flow of low pressure elastic fluid from the accumulator to the engine, means responsive to the. load on the engine for suceessivelyoperating said valve mechanisms,

' B'EST AVAILABLE co said means including'a floating lever conn'eeted between its ends to the low pressure valve meehanism, an adjustable fulcrum for one end of said lever, and a movable abut v nient res '-nsive to the pressure of the low pressure elastic fluid operatively connected to the other end of said lever. i

T. ln'coml ination, an elastic-fluid engine, an :u-eumulator'for supplying low pressure elastic fluid thereto, a valve mechanism for admitting high pressure elastic fiuid'to the ,engine. .a valve mechanism for controlling the flow of low n'essurc elastic fluid from the aeenninlatmto the engine, means-re sponSlve to the load on the engine for successively operating said valve mechanisms};

said means including a floating lever conneeted between its ends to the low pressure valve 1necl1an1sn1.'an ad ust able fulcrum for one end 01' said lover, a movable abutment responsive to pressure of the low] pressure elastic fluid operatnqely/ connected to 55.

the other end'of said lever, and releasable means for supporting the adjustable fulcrum; I

Inwitness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand thisthirt'eenth day of January, 60.1

REGINALD F.

Witnesses:

CHARLES HJFULLE JOHN HALFORD.

HALLIWELL. 

